Broadways Trailblazing ‘KPOP Musical Is Abruptly Closing. What Went Wrong?
Broadways Trailblazing ‘KPOP Musical Is Abruptly Closing. What Went Wrong?
KPOP made history as the first Broadway musical to celebrate Korean pop culture and featured the first Asian composer to perform on Broadway. But nine days after the series received mixed reviews, the show's producers unexpectedly announced it would end next Sunday after 44 previews and 17 regular episodes.
Did something go wrong? How could a powerful show in the middle of a global event fail to find an audience? And did the New York Times' negative review, which the editors called "accidental racism," help end his career?
The day after the show's closure was announced, The Times spoke exclusively to composer Helen Park, book writer Jason Kim, and producers Tim Forbes and Joey Parnes about why it's especially difficult to release original music at this time, and how the 2017 iteration will be affected. His Broadway run. , reception and where the product can be seen next. Here are edited excerpts from those talks.
How do you feel now?
Jason Kim (author of the book): I'm sorry. When you're trying to create and create something new, it takes time to find your audience. There are many examples of long-running shows on Broadway that took time to find their footing, and I always knew we were going to be one of those shows.
Helen Park (singer): I'm definitely still in shock. Working on this series for eight years is very personal for me. I don't think I'm defeated, I'm angry. I feel like we haven't had the same opportunity. I insisted it be archived this week [via the New York Public Library]. This is a short but important chapter in Broadway history.
KPOP is unconventional music that is neither an adaptation nor a revival. How difficult was it to open such a show on Broadway after the pandemic?
Tim Forbes (Producer): Certainly [Parnes and I] were drawn to him because of the origin. Our characters are Korean pop stars from a music label, so it's basically a behind-the-scenes family musical, just with a different sound. But these days, you're competing with tons of jukebox music, covers, existing intellectual property, and more.
The prospective audience will be delighted with the performance and will not be able to sit still at the final concert. Our problem is that we cannot attract enough. We had a positive momentum for a few weeks, then due to covid and other disease related interruptions we had to stop and cancel some shows, which didn't help.
Joey Parnes (Editor): Businesses after this pandemic are operating differently than they were before the pandemic. I think some people have decided not to go to the theater as much as they used to, and they definitely choose what they want, not what they can risk. Yes, Music Man earns $3 million a week, Hamilton more than $2 million a week, but the chart toppers show they have one thing in common: they're family-friendly. , whether you've been playing the game for a long time or everyone in the universe knows and loves it.
Luna became MwE as a fictional artist in the musical "KPOP".
(Matthew Murphy and Evan Zimmerman)
Almost all of the shows at the bottom of this list are new or difficult. We were at the bottom of this list for a short while, but we're not alone. There are other shows that are fighting, maybe not as hard as us, but still very fierce. When we said we would do it, it was unpredictable and we didn't expect it to be as difficult as it turned out to be. We hope to improve to work a little harder and grow this audience and we need more revenue.
Park : KPOP is new in every way. We have real K-pop idols in our lineup, but none of us are celebrities on Broadway or big stars in America. And while K-pop is recognizable as a genre, people's limited experience with the genre probably feeds into their preconceived notions of the scene.
Like it or not, contemporary Asian history is a dangerous one. Asians are the most diverse race in the world, there are so many opportunities for different stories, but Asian stories only have one or two things on the stage: stories about war, historical events and saving white people. But I'm proud of every effort we make to boldly tell a story that we believe is true and that resonates with our experience.
Looking back, is there anything you wish you'd done differently?
Parnes: I think we're pretty close to analyzing what actually happened, but none of the usual things you do to promote and promote a Broadway show seem to have the same effect as usual. We definitely reached out to the Asian and Korean American community because we thought that would be a strong base for our audience. But we don't generate enough of those ticket sales.
Kim: There are a million different ways to market a show. For a show like this to be financially viable and for the future of Broadway to be successful, we need to invite people to places where they wouldn't normally be. I was never invited to the theater as a young Asian, and I just went because it made me feel good anyway. I wish we had more time to figure out how to do this. It is very difficult to change art without changing the system, and we cannot change it alone. It's a triumph and a tragedy that we tried to do this and unfortunately there wasn't enough time.
Park: I don't think that's the best marketing. Our ad agency is Broadway-oriented, so I think it's aimed at the traditional Broadway audience, but we've tried to make our ad language and design fit the K-pop genre. But I don't think it has reached K-pop fans as effectively as it should. I think it took some time to find the best strategy because it's hard to expect someone to do something new perfectly the first time.
Forbes : We've changed our marketing a couple of times as we start to learn more about who's coming and find new creative elements that convey the story, the energy and the excitement through social media.
Parnes: It took us some time to develop the audio and video assets for the show because we had to do an out-of-town show in Washington, D.C., which had to be canceled due to Covid. We don't have the resources or the means to be able to prepare months before Broadway, let alone the time to be out of town, let alone rehearse something in front of an audience for weeks. I had it before it opened on Broadway. We knew it was a risk, but in the end we got the commitment to the special theater we wanted.
Forbes : It wasn't immediately clear that she was coming to Broadway. [After going off-Broadway in 2017] we spent about a year exploring other non-traditional venues and we didn't know how to do it. Four years ago, Joey and I and the creative team agreed that the Circle in the Square [an unusual venue with a large stage on Broadway] would be the perfect venue, because the nature of the theater is reminiscent of a concert in a stadium, but closer.
KPOP is reminiscent of an arena concert in the Square Theater Circle, with a rare Broadway level of thrust.
(Emilio Madrid)
Changes were made to 'KPOP' between the 2017 Broadway release and the Broadway debut. What did critics who compared the two versions think of the Broadway production?
Kim: These were two separate artistic endeavors, and I wanted us to set the press for this episode. Actually, this [Broadway version] was more of an adaptation than a remake. The world has changed so much in the last five years that we had no choice but to recreate the scene.
Forbes: The off-Broadway version was a lot of fun and it worked. The performance was seen by only a few thousand people, and most of them were critics, which was great, because there was generally widespread enthusiasm. Earlier this summer, a quick thought came to mind: Will the critics who like this film be offended because it's different, straight, and no matter what we do? With so many reviews about it, I'm a little surprised that it's not relevant to a potential audience. He's a bit of a baseball whiz and that may be why some find it difficult to take the show at his pace.
Park: The immersive experience as the audience moved through the different rooms was fun. But in my opinion and the opinion of many other Korean creators in our group, it was not as accurate as it could have been, because accuracy was not the main priority of the theater at the time. At the time, K-pop as a genre hadn't come to the United States, and we were trying to make it acceptable to a white audience. Broadway gave us the perfect opportunity to acknowledge our authenticity and focus on the like-minded, human and universal of what K-pop superstars go through.
Kim: I've been interested in the discussion of the show over the past few days because it's been divided. On one side are older white intellectuals, mostly male, who don't care about the scene. And then there's a younger, more diverse audience that cares deeply about the show. And they both seem to do it for the same reason: This show isn't necessarily about the suffering of Asians with a capital A. It's not about infantile men or hypersexualized women; It's not a fetish. There is xenophobia, a narrative that we must overcome as Asians by telling their own stories.
Some media asked, “Why is this an industry briefing? Why didn't they talk about plastic surgery, violence, and the work they did to create a K-pop group [as they did in the Broadway version]? We intentionally stayed away because it wasn't something we were really interested in; In fact, we decided to make our own "A Star Is Born." I love that people want this version of the 2017 white theme, this was a problem.
The editors responded to a negative review from the New York Times . Was that the reason you decided to end the show?
Parnes: No, a glowing review from the New York Times was all you needed to keep the show going. But it doesn't have the same effect anymore, and there are programs that get good reviews but don't work. We don't care that Jesse Green didn't like the show; We had a problem with the inappropriate language you used in your review and felt it was important to point it out, so we wrote about it.
Helen Park, the first Asian female composer on Broadway, during her KPOP performance.
(Emilio Madrid)
Park: For some reason, the use of Korea and Korean lyrics was a big part of the show's criticism. I thought it was amazing because our songs always have Korean lyrics and K-pop as a genre is more than a language, electronic music is very powerful, and I wanted to celebrate that. Looking back [before the Broadway production], I was like, "Am I doing everything in English?" I think there must be a crossroads. How Korean is too Korean for a white American viewer? »
Hearing Korean on Broadway can be a little jarring, but we've tried to make sure the context helps the audience understand what's going on. And we wanted people from that background to join us even if English wasn't their first language when we did the recording, and that's even better because it's English and they have a beautiful accent. This is another way to make our show something new and authentic, and I'm proud of it.
What is the status of the 'KPOP' album and upcoming performances?
Forbes: This may be the end of KPOP on Broadway, but hopefully not the end of KPOP. A takeaway album has been recorded and there is demand for more iterations in different settings, both in Las Vegas and abroad.
Parnes: I want a national tour. Casting a Broadway production would have been difficult, so we had to do a lot. We're committed to bringing this to life because it's too good not to show, and the actors and creators deserve a platform where more people can see and hear what they're capable of.
Kim: I hope we find another place. The most interesting thing was to see how the audience responded to the show: people danced, shouted, shouted, clapped. The night after was wild. So I think this show has an audience, maybe not on Broadway.
Forbes: Our show had 18 Broadway premieres. Here is a wave of talent that will power American theater for decades to come. It will change the face of Broadway, both on and off the stage. So that's good.
Park: When my son saw 'KPOP' on Broadway for the first time, he loved the song 'Halfway' that was sung by Ethnicity in our show, and it's about losing touch with who you are. My son is also biracial, but he is only 6 years old, so maybe he doesn't know the strangeness and importance of seeing himself on stage, not as a caricature, but as a person full of real feelings. And complex things. I'm happy that people who come to the show are probably experiencing it for the first time.
My concern is that because we're closing in, other Asian creatives think the only way to survive on Broadway is to compromise on authenticity, choose what white audiences want or like. Broadway curator and critic. I am very sorry. Even though this is a short-lived Broadway show, I hope it will be more of a start to tell bolder, more honest stories in different voices.
Take 'KPOP' including 18 Broadway original songs.
(Emilio Madrid)
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